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Kida harara
|Reported=2008 |Researchers=• Pat Spain • Josh Gates }}The kida harara (Karitiana: "laughing beast", though "harara" may be onomatopoeic), also called the kida so'emo (Karitiana: "black-faced beast"Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden "Sobre caes e indios: domesticidade, classificacao zoologica e relacao humano-animal entre os Karitiana," Revista de Antropología 15 (2009) p. 125-143), owojo or owoj (Karitiana: "people eater," "maternal grandfather," or "maternal male cousin"), is a cryptid reported from the Karitiana tribe reservation in the southwestern ian Amazon, described as a bulletproof giant sloth. Most of the Karitiana themselves equate it with the mapinguari, though some maintain that it is a seperate cryptid actually called o'i ty ("giant sloth"). However, most claim it is the same thing as the mapinguari, and their characteristics do agree with one another. Description The kida harara is described as a red- or black-haired, noxious-smelling, bulletproof animal with strong arms, large hook-shaped claws, and long teeth, somewhat resembling a giant anteater, but has a head "just like" that of a sloth, and is around the size of a man or a small tractor, or in some accounts up to 10' tall. Sometimes it is said to have smooth skin on some parts of its body, and one informant who saw a gorilla in the Porto Velho Zoo compared it to the kida harara in size and coat colour. According to its name, it has a black face. At least one purported eyewitness has directly identified it with a picture of a giant ground sloth. Apparently a cave-dwelling animal, it can behave aggressively towards people, can knock people out with its odour and "bear-hug" them to death, ripping off their arms and legs, and because of its bulletproof hide, it can only be killed by being shot in the head with a heavy lead slug.Destination Truth: Flying Dinosaur/Sloth Monster"Nightmare of the Amazon". Beast Man: Series 1, Episode 2. Its call may resemble that of a peccary, or this may be alleged mimicry on the kida harara's part. It is said to sleep standing upright, and shuffles its feet as it walks through the woods, making the earth shake. It tears apart babassu palms, which it likes to eat, and also fells other trees. Sightings Undated Several sightings of the kida harara have occured on the Karitiana tribe reservation, especially near an area apparently known as the "Cave of the Mapinguari" southwest of Kyõwã (see below, 2003 or 2004). In one incident, a Karitiana man named Moaci was out hunting when he saw what he believed was a giant anteater, due to its claws; but when the animal stood up, it was taller than a man. Moaci fled, pursued by the animal, and hid himself under a tree, which the animal attempted to uproot. In a story recounted to Pat Spain, two men were driving in their car when a kida harara came out of the forest. They hid, and it moved away. In 2006, a Karitiana from the village of Kyõwã recounted several sightings or close encounters; the kida harara's call was once heard in the forest whilst the informant was hunting; it is frequently heard breaking down palm trees at night; and a Karitiana saw a "giant sloth" near a stream in a field near the village and shot it, but it didn't die. One once entered the village of Kyõwã itself, prompting everyone to flee. 2003 or 2004 A Karitiana man named Geovaldo claimed to have encountered a kida harara in 2003 or 2004 near an area called "the Cave of the Mapinguari", although he gives somewhat conflicting accounts of the sighting. In the first report, he simply said he had seen it and been knocked unconcious by the smell: This account was confirmed by Geovaldo's father Lucas, who said that when his son took him back to the site of the encounter, he saw a cleared pathway where the creature had departed, "as if a boulder had rolled through and knocked down all the trees and vines". Interviewed for Destination Truth in 2008, Geovaldo said that he saw the kida harara when he went out to hunt, shot at it, and ran off when it charged at him. On Beast Hunter, Geovaldo also claimed to have shot the animal. He said he was hunting wild pigs when he was attacked by a kida harara. He fired at it multiple times before loading his gun with a lead slug, and firing at the animals face. The mapinguari stopped and screamed in pain, and Geovaldo escaped. Theories Like the mapinguari itself, the kida harara is speculated to be a surviving ground sloth. Eyewitness Geovaldo identified the kida harara with a photograph of a Megalonyx jeffersoni model, after failing to recognise photographs of various non-native animals such as a gorilla and a rhinoceros, as well as a spectacled bear. Similar cryptids The kida harara is frequently lumped together with the mapinguari, including by the Karitiana themselves. By extension, it may also be conflated with the jucucu, the segamai, and other alleged Amazonian ground sloths. In popular culture *Televised searches for the kida harara (or mapinguari) include Destination Truth (2008) with Josh Gates and Beast Man (2011) with Pat Spain. Notably, both of these searches came up with minor evidence for the mapinguari's existence: Spain blasted a slowed-down recording of a sloth call, and got a response; whilst Gates recorded an unidentifiable sound coming from a region where some palms had just been torn down, apparently by a large animal. Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:South America Category:Brazil Category:Theory: Lazarus taxon - Ground sloth Category:2003 Category:2004 Category:21st Century